The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-11-03

AOT udTA y0 W tHo STOdH tudt STOWS
mightier while walt. Farewell! Fare
weili
eknow the grace OF our lord Jesus Christ
that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes He
became poor.
Was there ever contrast so overpower-
ing as that between the monday of
Christ's celestial departure and the mid
night of his earthly arrival? Sure
| enough, the angels were out that night in
the sky, and especial meteors acted as
escort, but all that was from other worlds
and not from this world. The earth made
no demonstration of welcome. If one of
the great princes of this world steps out at
depot cheers resound, and the bands
play, and the flags wave. But for the
arrival of this missionary Prince of the
skies not a torch fiared, not a trum-
pet blew, not a plume futtered. All
the music and the pon2p were
overhead. Our world opened for him moth.
ing better than a barn door. The Rajah
of Cashmere sent to Victoria bedstead of
carved gold and canopy that cost $780,
600, but the world had for the Prince of
Heaven and earth only litter of straw.
The Crown jewels in the Tower of London
amount to $l5,0Oo,00J, but this member of
eternal royalty had nowhere to lay his
| head. To know how poor he was, ask the
| camel drivers, ask the shepherds, ask
Mary, ask the three wise men of the East
who afterward came there, young Caspar
and middle-aged Balthasar and old Mel
chior. To know how poor he was, examine
all the records of real estate in all that
Oriental country and see what whey ard,
or what house, or what field he owned.
Not one. OF what mortgage was he the
mortgages? Of what tenement was he the
landlord? CT what lease was he the lessee?
Who ever paid him rent?
For your sakes he became poor!
The world could have treated him better
If it had chosen. 1t had all the means for
making his earthly condition comfort
able. Only few years before, when
Pompey, the General. arrived at Brindisi,
he was greeted with arches and a costly
column which celebrated the $4,000, 900
people whom he had killed or conquered,
and he was allowed to wear his triumphal
robe in the Senate. The world had APP
plause for imperial butchers but buffeting
for the Prince of Peace; plenty of
| golden chalices for the favored to
drink out of, but our Prince must
put his lips to the bucket of
the well by the roadside after he had
begged for a drink. Poor? Born in an
other mans barn and eating at another
mans table, and cruising the lake in an
other mans fishing smack, and buried in
another mans mausoleum. Four inspired
authors wrote of his biography, and in
Vulnerable lives of Christ have been pub
lished, but he composed his autobiog.
raphy in most compressed way. He
said:
Ihaven trodden the wine-press alone.
Poor in the estimation of nearly all the
prosperous classes. They called him Sab
bath-breaker, wine-bibber, traitor, bias
phemer, and ransacked the dictionary of
opprobrium from lid to lid to express their
detestation. ] can think now of only two
well-to-do men who espoused his cause,
Nicodemus and Joseph, of Arimathea. His
friends for the most part were people who,
in that climate where ophthalmy or in
fiammation of the eye-ball sweeps ever
and anon as a scourge, had become blind,
sick people who were anxious to get we'll,
and troubled people in whose family
there was some one dead or
dying. If he bad a purse at all it was
empty, or we would have heard what was
done with the contents at the post-mor.
tenn. Poor! The pigeon in the dove-cote,
the rabbit in its burrow, the silk-worm In
its cocoon, the bee in it's hive is better pro-
vided for, better off, better sheltered
Aye, the brute creation has home on
earth, which Christ had not.
If on windy days the raven
Gambol like q dancing skif,
Not the less he loves his haven
| On the bosom of the cliff.
| II almost with eagle pinion
| Ger the Alps the channels roam,
Yet he has some small dominion
Which. no doubt he calls his home.
But the Crown Prince Of all heavenly
dominion had less than the raven, less
than the chamois, for he was homeless
Aye, in the history of the universe there
is no other instance of such coming down.
Who can count the miles from the top OF
the throne to the bottom of the CROSSE
Cleopatra, giving banquet to Anthony,
took pearl worth 100000 and dissolved
in vinegar and swallowed it. But when
our Prince, according to the evangelist, in
his last hours took the vinegar, in it had
been dissolved all the pearls of His
heavenly royalty. Down until there was
no other depth for Him to touch, troubled
until there was no other harassment to
suffer, poor until there was no other
| pdupoIlSH W tOTUuTe. billions OF dollars
spent in wars to destroy men, who will
furnish the statistics of the value of that
precious blood that was shed to save us?
Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
that though he was rich yet for your sakes he
became poor.
Only those who study this text In two
places can fully reach it's power, the Holy
Land of Asia Minor and the Holy Land OF
Heaven. How should like some day to
take drink out of Jacobs we'll, and take
sail on Galilee, and read the Sermon on
the Mount while standing on Oivet, and
sect the wilderness where Christ was tempt.
ed, and be some afternoon on Calvary at
about three O'Clock, the hour at which
closed the crucifixion, and sit under the
sycamores and by the side of brooks, and
think and dream and pray about the pow
erty of Him who came our souls to save.
But you and 1 will probably be
denied that, and so here, in another
continent, and in another hemisphere,
and in scenes as different as possible.
we recount, as well we may, how poor
our Heavenly Prince became And in the
other Holy Land above we may all study
the riches that he left behind when He
started for earthly expedition. Come, let
us bargain to meet each other at the door